Long time vegetarian and recent concert to veganism, Peter Hackney, has just one problem with being a vegan: sour-faced, irritating, sanctimonious vegans.
I’ve been a vegetarian for five years and for the last year or so I’ve been what vegan authors Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina have called ‘near vegan’.
In recent weeks I’ve taken the next step to become a true vegan, finally eliminating all animal products and by-products from my diet, my wardrobe and all other aspects of my life.
And I feel great.
I feel lighter (physically and mentally), I have more energy, I feel fresher and younger and more positive, and I feel good about living a life that – as far as possible – doesn’t harm other beings and is good for me too!
There’s just one thing I don’t like about veganism.
Vegans.
Sanctimonious, cliquey, sour-faced, irritating vegans.
Of course, I’m generalising here. There are exceptions to the above description of vegans. For example, the Editor-in-Chief of this magazine is a wonderfully life-affirming, positive person and a great advertisement for vegans.
I’ve never met Dan Mathews, the vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), but judging by his book Committed: A Rabble-Rouser’s Memoir, he’s another shining light among vegans. And quite handsome, I must say!
By and large, though, I’ve never met a more dour lot than vegans.
Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.
Recently, I was at a party in West End, the scruffy centre of all things alternative in Brisbane.
The host introduced me at one point to two other vegans at the soiree, a lesbian couple. (I guess he thought that being queer and vegan we’d have lots in common. Wrong!)
“How long have you been a vegan?” asked one of the lesbians aggressively.
“I’m new to it,” I told her, adding that I’d been vegetarian for years and drifting towards it for quite a while.
“I’ve been a vegan for 10 years,” she snapped.
After a couple of minutes of boring what-do-you-dos, the other girl asked with sudden ferocity: “Do you eat sugar?”
Then, before I could reply: “Because you’re not a vegan if you eat sugar. It’s made with charcoal from animal bones.”
Actually, that’s not necessarily true: it’s only white cane sugar that’s filtered using activated charcoal, which can be derived from animal bones (and in Australia, usually isn’t).
Just to make sure, I’ve switched to brown sugar. Not that I have much of that anyway – I only use it in my one coffee per day (one teaspoon per cup).
But that wasn’t good enough for my Sapphic sisters who muttered something about “fake vegans”.
I quickly moved on and found some friendlier, more interesting people to engage with. But it rattled me for a few minutes that vegans could act this way towards fellow vegans.
Since when has being a vegan been a competition?
Of course, it would be a mistake to make assumptions about all vegans on the basis of these two lovely ladies. But sadly, they don’t seem atypical.
Last year, when I was still ‘just’ a vegetarian, I was told off in no uncertain terms by a vegan for being a fan of Kylie Minogue. Now, I admit that I’m going off Kylie a bit and I prefer her ’90s and early 2000s music – but it wasn’t Ms Minogue’s musical output that had this vegan in a flap.
Kylie, you see, has worn costumes with feathers in them, and was once snapped carrying a snakeskin handbag (or it looked like one anyway – we don’t know for sure).
By supporting Kylie, I was apparently complicit in killing animals.
Ridiculous! Me being a vegetarian (then) or a vegan (now), the point is the same: it’s about what I do. It is about the choices I make about what I personally buy or consume.
Yesterday, when catching the bus to work, I noticed that the driver was wearing a leather jacket. The logical extension of that anti-Minogue vegan’s thinking is that I should have forgone that bus, waited half an hour for the next one and been late for work. I mean, catching that bus keeps him employed, and he spends his income on animal skins, right?
Well, I’m sorry but I will not lose my job, or limit my music to Steve Kilbey and Chrissie Hynde (fabulous though they are), to make some sour-faced vegan happy. And if that makes me a “lesser” vegan, so be it.
(For the record, I did deplore Kylie’s apparent snakeskin handbag and said as much on her official forums at the time, drawing the ire of many Minogue-o-philes. But a couple of them agreed too.)
Here’s another example of the type of vegan that irritates me.
Last year, Carnation brought out a line of tinned soy cream to supplement their longstanding lines of canned cooking milks.
Posting on an online vegetarian and vegan forum, I naively said it was “good to see corporations providing vegan alternatives”.
I was quickly informed that, as a corporation producing dairy products, Carnation’s parent company Nestlé was responsible for “horrific atrocities” and anyone supporting them had “blood on their hands”. And when I defended myself I probably had “secret motives” – like being a Nestlé employee!
Well, I’m no fan of the corporate world, but if there’s to be any hope of converting the masses to veganism, vegan products have to be widely accessible. Mainstream, mass-producers of food and drink have to start making them, and they must sell them in supermarkets.
Sure, if you live in a neighbourhood like Newtown in Sydney or in San Francisco, where there are vegan grocery shops and restaurants, by all means support these over the alternatives. But most people aren’t so lucky.
Moving along, I have recently discovered that there are the vegans who just won’t interact with non-vegans. Somehow they’ve forgotten that they weren’t always vegans themselves! (There may be a few lifelong vegans around, who were raised by vegan parents and stuck with it always, but they’d be rarer than hen’s teeth.)
There are even vegans who see vegetarians as “the enemy”, just like fully-fledged carnivores, instead of seeing them for what they really are: allied beings who aren’t quite there yet in their quest to minimise animal suffering.
So what’s my point in all this? Why should I care what other vegans are like? I’m not a vegan for them – I’m a vegan for myself, for animals and for the environment. Surely, it doesn’t matter what other vegans think?
But it does matter and here’s why.
The people I’ve described above do not encourage anyone to go vegan. In fact, they turn people off. They push people away from becoming vegans.
And that means more animals in the slaughterhouse.
So, dour vegans of the world, why not lighten up a little, be a bit nicer, and encourage more people to go vegan rather than put up walls and make veganism seem like an exclusive clique for uptight people?
You’ve got nothing to lose – except that sour face. And you might even save more animals’ lives.
Peter Hackney is associate editor at The Scavenger.
Add to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by Adey, 14 June 2011
written by Elisabeth, 23 February 2011
Sorry, but you sound like you are well on the road to being exactly what you claim to hate when you utter grandiose claims about the transformative effects of a slight diet modification. The testamonial about having "more energy" and feeling "younger" is particularly cliché. Is there any lifestyle change or unusual health product that does not make those claims?
written by Andrew, 27 August 2010
http://www.wisevid.com/play?v=6AzfAg5u6tcb
it's not EXACTLY about Vegans, but obvious "holier than thou" vegans are in it. Also, you a supporter of PETA? : that's a real shame.. wanna know why? Watch this (and do some real research of your own to confirm it as I have), really disgusting stuff:
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=2PKESEFQ
I mean, I don't like animal abuse and find people who do it utterly disgusting, but PETA is very disturbing... ugh... Anyways, sorry for such a late reply to your blog, I just wanted to comment and show you some fun support and interesting information about things you brought up here.
written by noname, 25 August 2010
I also have noticed that a lot of vegans (yet not all) tend to be self-righteous. They can never seem to admit when they may not be as right as they think they are, because someone else has a different opinion. It's happened tons of times to me, you have a different opinion than them on a subject, and they automatically lash out and claim that you are somehow wrong, or that your opinion doesn't make sense, even though technically, it's YOUR opinion. It really is irritating, and many times, I myself, have tried to explain what this was really doing to the big picture. But, they shunned me out and acted as if I was just a 'lowly vegan.' They don't seem to understand that by constantly judging and accusing everyone of doing wrong, they are turning people OFF veganism. I always try to be respectful of everyone, regardless of what they believe. Everyone deserves the same mutual respect as the next person, and we should all be congratulating each other on the things we ARE doing instead of nagging each other on the things we AREN'T doing. Cuz it would really suck if people stopped doing ANYTHING at all.
There is no need to criticize omnivores for eating meat, most of the people just don't know where the food comes from. There is a difference between politely having a conversation about the reasons why we shouldn't eat meat,... and automatically yelling off the bat that the person is in the WRONG!!!!!! And you are right!!! A lot of vegans seem to forget that they were once most likely omnivores too!!!
Just because we don't agree with someone's opinion doesn't mean that we should disrespect them. I may not agree with vegans that eat honey, but it is their decision if they want to, and they deserve the same mutual respect all around. Also, NOBODY is perfect, I know I'm not perfect, and I am 100% sure no vegan is perfect. What is 'perfect' is also in a matter of everyone's own opinion.
I'm am really sorry you were treated that way. I know what its like. But just be proud that you show more respect than they do
you will be the one being able to spread the word the most and in the best way possible
written by Katrina Fox, 23 August 2010
http://www.thescavenger.net/animals/veganism-connection-to-antiracistsocial-justicework48676.html
written by mical, 22 August 2010
and don't even get me started on the apathy of many vegans i've met toward the ongoing systemic oppression of human beings (racism, heterosexism, etc.) that they, despite washing their hands of slaughterhouses, participate in daily...UHG.
written by Bernard Brennan, 18 August 2010
written by Ashley, 17 August 2010
So true! Thank you for this article. I am vegan, and I get so tired of the cliques and the holier-than-thou attitude many vegans have. I have even stopped attending many of the vegan events in my area, which is a shame, because of those in the "vegan scene". If they are irritating me to the point of not supporting their events, can you imagine how they are treating curious vegetarians and meat-eaters? Talk about taking one GIANT step backward for the cause.
written by Nick, 17 August 2010
Anyway, my response to all those experiences is are we going to focus on the problem or the solution? The problem of oppression, of animals, LGBTIQ people, the working classes, is an unending horror and extremely brutal, but the solutions, the steps being made towards them, the personal effort made, damn they put a bounce in my step and a smile on my face.
I remember an old saying that I have to veganise - “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” - The funky ways we can do this, showing people the solution at the same time as we show them the problem, geez making them laugh somehow while you do, that is the way I want to go about it. So I can relate to the article, but I would try not to sweat it. Much happier times to be had. And no, I sure aint no pollyannna!
written by Menkit, 17 August 2010
written by Brimstone, 17 August 2010
written by Alistair, 17 August 2010
It's also more visible, but there are "normal" mainstream vegans out there who quietly do their thing without making a song and dance about it. I like hearing from them more but mostly, they talk about compassion for animals with people still in the meat-eating status quo.
Vegans should share tips and recipes, and compassion with everyone.
written by Lou form Sydney, 17 August 2010
I think you are just meeting the wrong vegans. I am a member of Animal Lib NSW and Ican assure you that we are all a very non judgemental/cliquey lot. I understand where you are coming from as I have met some vegans who fit the elitist/snob description you have conveyed, but in my experience animal rights vegans aren't that way. Most of the vegans I socialise with are very positive people who are helpful and informative, and personally I always try to be positive about veganism without being judgemental. It would be the height of hypocrisy for me to negatively judge a person for living a lifestyle that I myself lived in the past, and you will never get the message across to a non vegan by talking down to them.
Hopefully this stroy will be read by some of the vegans you are talking about, and help to open their eyes to the bigger picture.
